Korea: Day 2 - Seoul
All the excitement of the first day, the overnight flight plus having to work until 2.30 a.m. a few nights back: all of this started to catch up on the Fatt who wished to take it easy. Unfortunately bkkmei was raring to go - wanting more sights, more experiences and more Korean food.
We went to Seoul Station to get onward tickets. What a beautiful building - all glass and light. I'll post pics up later. Then we headed for Gyeongbokgung - a former palace. My dad had said "Make sure you go to the palace, it is very pretty. But it is just like the Forbidden Palace, but smaller. Everything was modelled on the Chinese palaces." Well I hate to say it, but it was indeed rather like the Forbidden Palace, but smaller. With a slightly different colour scheme. It had been rebuilt after having been destroyed by the Japanese first in the 16th century and then later during colonial times last century. That would be a recurring theme at the various temples / palaces we visited or read about. Of course, I'd have been mighty impressed had I not already seen the Forbidden Palace. It anyhow has its own charms - I liked the way if you looked in one direction there were modern buildings, if you looked in another, there were green mountains.
With our energy sapping by the second, we took a taxi to a big market called Dongdaemun. We stopped off at a shopping mall for some food at a food court. They're very funky these food courts. You take a good gander at the picture menus or see what other people are scoffing. Then you place your order at a common till and get given a number. There is a big screen where all the numbers come up and then you go and fetch your food. Unfortunately, argh, the food was not great. Matt had bibimbap (rice, veg, red pepper sauce all mixed round in a very large bowl) and did not take to it. I thought I'd ordered dakgalbi - spicy chicken. I had no idea what it looked like but came back with what looked like a hamburger with more red pepper sauce dolloped liberally on top. It wasn't very nice - and I was too shy to question whether it was really dakgalbi or if I'd picked up the wrong tray by mistake. I'm such a wimp.
We wandered around the market which is next to a stadium (now converted to a car park). Maybe it was one of the stadiums used during the Olympics? Anyhow, there was a good range of toffer on display - shoes, clothes, antiques. Actually nothing I would want to purchase personally and therefore... I lost interest quite quickly. I mean... it's hard for a market to compare to Chatachuk! The most interesting parts were the food stalls selling boiled or grilled skewers etc. Oh, and one stall selling sexual aids. Fatt had a good look (out of curiosity of course!) and declared them 'small' - a fairly typical white male reaction methinks.
Rather tired, we rested back at the hotel. I wanted a Korean banquet for dinner. Fatt was nonplussed. We taxied over to Insadong. The cabbies here are usually middle aged men. They probably won't understand foreign pronunciation of Korean words. It should be In -SSSSSSSAAAA- dong for example, not just Insadong. It must be Harrr-meal- TTONN, not just Hamilton. And because they'll usually be long-sighted and need their specs (and probably won't have them), you can't just show them the Korean characters in the guidebook. Best to write it out in ungainly childish Korean script. Anyhow, it's fun practicing Korean words with them.
We were looking for a restaurant - we couldn't find it. Fatt then pronounced that his stomach felt 'funny'. He wanted western food and did not want to traipse around InSSSAAAAAdong looking for Korean food. We went to a posh western place nearby - sooooo expensive. We walked out. We went back to scummy Itaewon as we knew there would be a lot of western joints there. Walked into a pizza place where it was about 10 squid for a pizza. Lucky they were full. We ended up at a sandwich cafe. Fatt tucked in (you see, his stomach was 'funny' but he was still ravenous). In the spirit of Korean food, I went for a bulgogi sandwich. Gerrrr-rose! And so after, I had a Twister meal at the KFC on the ground floor of our hotel. I can justify this - we always aim to check out KFCs around the world. It was actually pretty good! Probably the best I've had in Asia. Heh heh.
We went to Seoul Station to get onward tickets. What a beautiful building - all glass and light. I'll post pics up later. Then we headed for Gyeongbokgung - a former palace. My dad had said "Make sure you go to the palace, it is very pretty. But it is just like the Forbidden Palace, but smaller. Everything was modelled on the Chinese palaces." Well I hate to say it, but it was indeed rather like the Forbidden Palace, but smaller. With a slightly different colour scheme. It had been rebuilt after having been destroyed by the Japanese first in the 16th century and then later during colonial times last century. That would be a recurring theme at the various temples / palaces we visited or read about. Of course, I'd have been mighty impressed had I not already seen the Forbidden Palace. It anyhow has its own charms - I liked the way if you looked in one direction there were modern buildings, if you looked in another, there were green mountains.
With our energy sapping by the second, we took a taxi to a big market called Dongdaemun. We stopped off at a shopping mall for some food at a food court. They're very funky these food courts. You take a good gander at the picture menus or see what other people are scoffing. Then you place your order at a common till and get given a number. There is a big screen where all the numbers come up and then you go and fetch your food. Unfortunately, argh, the food was not great. Matt had bibimbap (rice, veg, red pepper sauce all mixed round in a very large bowl) and did not take to it. I thought I'd ordered dakgalbi - spicy chicken. I had no idea what it looked like but came back with what looked like a hamburger with more red pepper sauce dolloped liberally on top. It wasn't very nice - and I was too shy to question whether it was really dakgalbi or if I'd picked up the wrong tray by mistake. I'm such a wimp.
We wandered around the market which is next to a stadium (now converted to a car park). Maybe it was one of the stadiums used during the Olympics? Anyhow, there was a good range of toffer on display - shoes, clothes, antiques. Actually nothing I would want to purchase personally and therefore... I lost interest quite quickly. I mean... it's hard for a market to compare to Chatachuk! The most interesting parts were the food stalls selling boiled or grilled skewers etc. Oh, and one stall selling sexual aids. Fatt had a good look (out of curiosity of course!) and declared them 'small' - a fairly typical white male reaction methinks.
Rather tired, we rested back at the hotel. I wanted a Korean banquet for dinner. Fatt was nonplussed. We taxied over to Insadong. The cabbies here are usually middle aged men. They probably won't understand foreign pronunciation of Korean words. It should be In -SSSSSSSAAAA- dong for example, not just Insadong. It must be Harrr-meal- TTONN, not just Hamilton. And because they'll usually be long-sighted and need their specs (and probably won't have them), you can't just show them the Korean characters in the guidebook. Best to write it out in ungainly childish Korean script. Anyhow, it's fun practicing Korean words with them.
We were looking for a restaurant - we couldn't find it. Fatt then pronounced that his stomach felt 'funny'. He wanted western food and did not want to traipse around InSSSAAAAAdong looking for Korean food. We went to a posh western place nearby - sooooo expensive. We walked out. We went back to scummy Itaewon as we knew there would be a lot of western joints there. Walked into a pizza place where it was about 10 squid for a pizza. Lucky they were full. We ended up at a sandwich cafe. Fatt tucked in (you see, his stomach was 'funny' but he was still ravenous). In the spirit of Korean food, I went for a bulgogi sandwich. Gerrrr-rose! And so after, I had a Twister meal at the KFC on the ground floor of our hotel. I can justify this - we always aim to check out KFCs around the world. It was actually pretty good! Probably the best I've had in Asia. Heh heh.
posted by sylv at 2:04 pm
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